Biography: Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount productions in Hollywood, most of them Jack Oakie vehicles. Still in his 20s, he produced first-class MGM fil ... show all Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount productions in Hollywood, most of them Jack Oakie vehicles. Still in his 20s, he produced first-class MGM films, including "The Philadelphia Story (1940)". Having left Metro after a dispute with studio chief Louis B. Mayer over Judy Garland , he then worked for Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox, producing "The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)", when Ernst Lubitsch's illness first brought him to the director's chair for "The Dragonwyck (1946)". Mankiewicz directed 20 films in a 26-year period, successfully attempted every kind of movie from Shakespeare adaptation to western, from urban sociological drama to musical, from epic film with thousands of extras to a two-character picture. "Letter to Three Wives, A (1949)" and "All About Eve (1950)" brought him wide recognition along with two Academy Awards for each as a writer and a director, seven years after his elder brother Herman J. Mankiewicz won Best Screenplay for "Citizen Kane (1941)". His more intimate films like "Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)", "The Barefoot Contessa (1954)"--his only original screenplay--and "Honey Pot, The (1967/I)" are major artistic achievements as well, showing Mankiewicz as a witty dialoguist, a master in the use of flashback and a talented actors' director (he favored English actors and had in Rex Harrison a kind of alter-ego on the screen). hide |
